Franklin Expedition Mummies

Sir John Franklin's ill fated north west passage expedition in 1845 which cost the lives of all the men taking part. The remains of some of these men who died early on were later found still well preserved in their icy tombs160 years after the disaster..

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Death
• bodies
• sir
• john
• franklin
• north
• west
• passage
• grave
• coffins
• mummies
• tall
• ships
• sea
• voyage
• explorer
• victorian

[vandaylen]

that's a beautiful way you've set the music to it; great choice of a tune. Really helps change your persepctive from seeing creepy dead people to beautiful remains of a noble cause gone wrong

[snakes3425]

@vivikification

the men died of hypothermia, exposure, and disease but one thing that has been mentioned as one of the main causes for their deaths is the food they were eating between 1845 and 1848 was toxic, having become contaminated with lead because of the poorly made tins it was stored in and when the ships where abanadoned the survivors were acting irrationally and took few items needed to survive in the arctic after they abandoned their ships

[snakes3425]

@knoxvilleguy2

At the time the Royal Navy was in charge of the expedition, not a private company or museum, the contract went to the lowest bidder, who had less then 3 months to prepare the tins. The Lead alone wouldn't have killed the men, but if they fell ill at any time during the voyage it would've by the time the first attempt at reaching safety was made the lead was clearly affecting their judgement. As for preservation the ice and permafrost preserved the bodies

[knoxvilleguy2]

@snakes3425 Back w / the art of canning food was still new & not perfected, the lead hit their nervous systems. I understand tissue can also be preserved by arsenic, strychnine & mercury because they kill bacteria just as effectively as extreme cold or heat. 1845 - 1848 wasn't all that terribly long ago, so it makes sense that they had / have still - living descendants.

[snakes3425]

@knoxvilleguy2

In the case of the men on Beechey Island it was ruled that that they died of pnamonua and their conditions were made worse by Lead Poisoning.

Yes many of them did indeed have families when they departed, and most have decendents, the archeologists who conducted the dig on the graves in 1984 had to make sure any decendents were made aware of what they were planning to do

[knoxvilleguy2]

@snakes3425 the food was stored in some of the 1st tin containers, supposedly sealed with lead. Ingesting lead contaminated food w / not only kill them, the lead would supposedly aid in the preservation of their bodies along with the cold.

I wonder if the Franklin Expedition members had any descendants ?

[0u8shirt8]

The look like they died in a wind tunnel.

[1likestuff]

Great vid. The Terror, Dan Simmons, well researched book, really gets over how cold and hungry you can get. Has an extra twist as well!!

[zjohnson2814]

It's amazing, unbelievable, yet scary how the eye balls are still intact. And it's so sad how the expidition went wrong.

[Vaninasanta]

@TheGonzalo1982 Es "Falls" (Cascadas) de Ennio Morricone, banda sonora de la película La Misión (1986).